1 


i' 


A SERMON 

PREACHED  BY 

REV.  A.  J.  F.  BEHRENDS,  D.  D. 

BEFORE  THE 

^ntirifan  ^oard  0|[  ^ommissianfts  for  li^oreijn  '^^bsiotis, 

AT  THE 

SEVENTY-SECOND  ANNUAL  MEETING, 


HELD  IN  ST.  LOUIS,  MO., 

OCTOBER  18,  1881. 


COUNTING  THE  COST. 


A SERMON 


BEFORE  THE 


AT  THE 


SEVENTY-SECOND  ANNUAL  MEETING. 

HELD  IN  PILGRIM  CHURCH, 

ST.  LOUIS,  OCT.  i8,  i88i. 


By  Rev.  A.  J.  F,  Behrends,  D.  D., 

PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. 


BOSTON : 

BEACON  PRESS:  THOMAS  TODD,  PRINTER, 
No.  I Somerset  Street. 

I 8 8 I . 


^ 2.i)(j 
I 


■ 

:i{  LIBrIry  )|) 


SERMON. 


“For  which  of  you,  intending  to  build  a tower,  sitteth 

NOT  DOWN  FIRST  AND  COUNTETH  THE  COST,  WHETHER  HE  HAVE  SUF- 
FICIENT TO  FINISH  IT?  Lest  haply,  after  he  hath  laid  the 
FOUNDATION,  AND  IS  NOT  ABLE  TO  FINISH  IT,  ALL  THAT  BEHOLD  IT 
BEGIN  TO  MOCK  HIM,  SAYING,  ThIS  MAN  BEGAN  TO  BUILD,  AND  WAS 
NOT  ABLE  TO  FINISH.”  — Luke  xiv  : 28-JO. 

It  is  often  said  that  where  there  is  a will  there  is  a way. 
Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  failure,  or  partial  success,  of 
many  a life  is  largely  due  to  feebleness  or  intermission  of 
resolute  determination.  But  the  will  is  none  the  less  under 
law,  and  where  that  law  is  not  consulted  and  honored  the  will 
is  not  permitted  to  have  its  way.  Wisdom  is  the  appointed 
highway  along  which  the  will  must  press  to  its  goal.  A man’s 
aims  may  be  high  and  noble,  and  his  devotion  may  be  pure 
and  entire,  yet  may  he  bitterly  fail  from  simple  neglect  of  hav- 
ing measured  all  the  obstacles ; falling  before  assaults  whose 
vigor  and  number  he  had  not  anticipated,  and  for  which  he 
had  neglected  to  make  the  necessary  preparation. 

Every  wise  man,  therefore,  counts  the  cost.  But  from  this 
it  does  not  follow  that  he  only  is  a wise  man  who  counts  the 
cost  before  he  chooses,  who  compels  obligation  to  wait  on 
prudence,  who  makes  his  decision  of  what  he  shall  do  de- 
pendent on  a survey  of  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  and 
the  sacrifices  to  be  borne.  Counting  the  cost  is  with  some 
men  the  confession  of  cowardice ; with  others  it  is  the  dis- 
closure of  undaunted  heroism.  The  noblest  men  are  they 
who  so  count  the  cost  as  to  hold  themselves  ready  to  devote 
time,  fortune,  and  even  life,  to  the  cause  they  freely  and 
heartily  espouse.  Moses  counted  the  cost  in  this  heroic 
spirit  when  he  turned  from  the  courts  of  the  Pharaohs  to 
share  the  fortunes  of  an  enslaved  but  chosen  people.  Paul 


4 


Counting  the  Cost. 


counted  the  cost  when  he  became  a Christian  disciple  and 
a preacher  of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles.  Jesus  Christ  count- 
ed the  cost  when  He  bowed  His  shoulders  beneath  that  burden 
whose  awful  weight  was  crushing  a race.  The  martyrs,  in 
ancient  and  modern  times,  counted  the  cost  when  they  sealed 
their  testimony  in  their  blood.  Such  a counting  of  the  cost 
is  the  only  one  to  which  Christ  summons  us,  as  plainly  ap- 
pears from  the  preceding  and  following  statements,  in  which 
the  duty  enjoined  is  that  of  immediate,  intelligent,  deliberate, 
unqualified,  irrevocable  surrender.  The  twenty-seventh  and  the 
thirty-third  verses  of  our  chapter  supply  us  with  the  key  to 
the  true  meaning  of  the  included  illustrations.  They  were 
preceded  by  the  declaration  that  no  man  could  be  Christ’s 
disciple  who  was  not  ready  to  bear  the  cross ; and  their  appli- 
cation is  given  in  these  significant  words : “ So  likewise,  who- 
soever he  be  of  you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath,  he 
cannot  be  my  disciple.”  Here  is  the  inspired  commentary  of 
our  text.  This  is  the  spirit  in  which  we  are  to  count  the  cost 
and  build,  measure  the  resources  of  our  enemy  and  vanquish 
him.  The  dearest  associations  must  be  cheerfully  sundered, 
the  heaviest  burdens  must  be  freely  and  gladly  borne,  if  nec- 
essary. We  must  give  all,  ourselves  included.  Only  such  a 
service  does  Christ  want ; only  such  a one  can  He  bless.  He 
must  have  all,  or  He  can  make  use  of  nothing;  and  that,  not 
because  of  His  imperious  wilfulness,  but  because  our  lives 
cannot  reach  their  utmost  vigor  and  their  highest  usefulness 
unless  and  until  His  will  has  everywhere  and  always  its  way. 

It  has  fallen  to  our  lot,  dear  brethren,  to  be  summoned  to  a 
service  in  which  no  reservations  are  permitted  or  possible. 
Neither  Alexander,  nor  Caesar,  nor  Napoleon,  dreamed  of  such 
an  empire  as  that  to  whose  establishment  Jesus  Christ  calls 
us  — an  empire  of  truth  and  righteousness,  resting  on  the 
free  acceptance  and  hearty  love  of  its  subjects,  including  all 
nations,  enduring  forever.  If  Napoleon’s  dreams  of  empire 
impoverished  France,  we  may  rest  assured  that  the  Church  of 
God  has  neither  treasure  nor  talent  to  spare.  And,  therefore, 
should  we  diligently  count  the  cost,  not  with  the  reserved  de- 


Counting  the  Cost. 


5 


termination  to  abandon  a task  apparently  too  great  for  our 
execution,  but  in  order  that  our  will  may  work  along  the  lines 
of  a wisdom  that  is  never  baffled,  because  it  is  never  sur- 
prised, and  that  we  may  bring  within  easy  reach,  and  use  with 
the  utmost  energy,  each  and  all  the  means  at  our  command. 

Let  .us  glance,  then,  first  of  all,  at  the  difflculties  that  must 
be  encountered  and  overcome-by  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the 
world’s  evangelization.  I can  do  no  more  than  very  rapidly  to 
mention  them,  condensing  in  a few  sentences  what  might 
properly  claim  volumes  in  the  minute  description. 

These  obstacles  are  found  in  the  native  depravity  of  the 
human  heart — an  enmity  original,  subtle,  persistent,  cumu- 
lative— whose  removal  can  only  be  secured  by  a change  so 
mighty  and  superhuman  as  to  be  called  the  “new  birth;”  in 
the  bad  conditions  of  life  that  are  the  heritage  of  centuries  of 
sin ; in  the  great  and  compact  mass  of  customs,  institutions 
and  philosophies,  enlisting  the  pride  of  nationality  and  scorn- 
ing intrusion  ; in  the  gigantic  social  vices  that  corrupt  society 
at  home,  disgrace  the  Christian  name  abroad,  and  paralyze 
the  arm  of  Christian  endeavor ; in  the  tenacity  of  national 
habits  and  the  power  of  national  traditions;  in  the  scorn  of 
false  learning  and  the  pride  of  great  names ; in  the  stealthy, 
but  sleepless,  vigilance  of  Roman  Catholicism,  with  its  fixed 
policy  of  invading  every  Protestant  mission  field,  and  in  the 
painful  violations  of  Christian  comity  by  representatives  of 
Protestant  communions,  creating  distrust  and  disaffection  ; in 
the  stagnation  of  the  Greek  communion,  as  stolid  as  it  is  sta- 
tionary ; in  the  hard  formality  and  corruption  of  the  degene- 
rate remnants  of  ancient  churches  in  Asia  and  Africa ; in  the 
bigotry  of  the  Moslem,  ruling  many  of  the  fairest  portions  of 
the  globe,  dominant  in  all  the  lands  of  Bible  story  and  of 
primitive  Christianity,  trained  to  the  utmost  scorn  of  the 
gospel  by  the  traditions  of  a thousand  years ; in  the  seared 
moral  nature  of  the  Mongolian,  steeped  in  centuries  of  prac- 
tical atheism ; in  the  extreme  animalism  of  millions  of  our 
race ; in  the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade,  maintained  in  the  face 
of  the  united  protest  of  Christendom,  and  causing  the  native 


6 


Counting  the  Cost. 


African  races  to  regard  every  stranger  as  an  enemy,  a traffic 
whose  prompt  and  stern  suppression  must  accompany,  if  not 
precede,  the  Christianization  of  the  Dark  Continent ; in  the 
jealousy  of  nations  and  the  selfishness  of  trade,  with  shot  and 
shell  plowing  a highway  for  its  products  through  the  heart  of  a 
protesting  and  suffering  people  ; and  last,  though  by  na  means 
least,  in  the  unseen  powers  of  darkness,  under  the  leadership 
of  Satan,  father  of  lies,  and  destroyer  of  souls  from  the  be- 
ginning. 

For,  interpret  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  as  you  please, 
reading  it  as  sober  history  or  as  pictorial  and  poetic  repre- 
sentation, the  Biblical  solution  of  an  extra-mundane  and  ante- 
human  origin  of  sin  is  the  most  reasonable.  Sin  exhibits  a 
violence  and  reveals  itself  in  methods  of  assault  that  argue 
its  intrusion  into  the  field  of  human  history  from  a sphere  be- 
yond the  reach  of  our  observation.  For  one,  I cannot  read 
my  Bible,  and  deny  or  doubt  the  personal  existence  and  living 
hostility  of  Satan.  Our  Lord’s,  personal  conflict  was  not  only 
with  the  moral  obstinacy  of  the  man,  but  with  the  subtler  and 
fiercer  enmity  of  the  Prince  of  Darkness.  He  was  tempted 
of  the  Devil.  He  rejoiced  over  Satan’s  fall.  So  speaks  the 
record.  Peter  was  the  object  of  a Satanic  sifting.  An  invis- 
ible agency  is  represented  by  Paul  as  at  work  intent  on  the 
destruction  of  man.  We  are  exposed  to  the  wiles  of  the 
Devil.  To  reduce  all  this  to  rhetorical  impression,  or  to  per- 
sonification, or  to  an  innocent  accommodation  to  traditional 
doctrine,  is  to  riddle  the  Bible  of  its  honest  significance  and 
worth  for  ordinary  readers.  And  for  one  I cannot  resist  the 
impression  that  the  whole  history  of  man  confirms  the  script- 
ural representation,  and  bears  testimony  to  the  awful  reality 
of  a Satanic  agency  and  leadership.  We  need  not  go  to  the 
length  of  some  of  the  ancient  fathers,  so  deeply  mastered  by 
this  conviction,  as  to  maintain  that  the  heathen  deities  are  the 
representatives  and  embodiments  of  demons ; that  all  heathen 
worship  is  Satanic  in  its  inspiration  and  results ; that  all  hea- 
then virtue  is  thinly  disguised  vice.  The  heathen  do  grope 
after  God.  But  their  history  and  bondage  are  marked  by 


Counting  the  Cost. 


7 


such  strange  and  contradictory  features,  such  aberrations  and 
excesses  in  worship  and  in  conduct,  as  to  point  to  causes  both 
known  and  unknown,  natural  and  supernatural,  visible  and 
invisible.  The  delusions  that  have  swept  over  them  and  poi- 
soned their  blood  seem  to  have  come  from  regions  beyond 
them ; they  are  the  footprints  of  an  army  that  the  eye  has 
never  seen,  whose  footfall  has  been  unheard,  and  whom  the 
sword  cannot  reach.  As  in  Kaulbach’s  famous  mural  paint- 
ing of  the  battle  of  the  Huns,  the  bitter  contest  of  the  day  is 
renewed  by  the  spirits  of  the  sleeping  warriors  in  the  dead  of 
night  and  in  mid  air,  the  ghostly  Attila  borne  on  his  shield, 
with  scourge  in  hand,  hasting  to  smite  Theodoric,  so  is  our 
earthly  campaign  only  section  and  symbol  of  a warfare  that 
stirs  all  the  heights  and  depths,  and  where  the  clash  of  arms, 
though  unheard,  is  fierce  and  unceasing.  An  army  must 
move  in  concert,  and  the  work  of  no  division  is  complete 
until  victory  has  swept  the  whole  broad  field.  The  face  of 
the  earth  can  be  renewed  only  as  the  entire  universe  shares  in 
the  regeneration.  Subtler  forces  than  any  we  can  measure,  or 
even  attack,  complicate  the  problem  of  a world’s  conversion 
and  retard  its  achievement.  No  holiday  task  is  ours  when  we 
talk  of  reducing  the  world  to  the  obedience  of  Jesus  Christ. 
That  sums  up  the  problern  of  all  the  ages.  No  greater  prayer 
ever  fell  from  human  or  angelic  lips  than  that  familiar  to  us 
from  childhood,  a prayer  of  only  three  short  words : “ Thy 
kingdom  come  ! ” 

I have  summarized  and  made  prominent  the  difficulties  of 
our  task,  not  by  way  of  discouragement,  but  to  emphasize  the 
amplitude  and  sufficiency  of  our  means  of  conquest.  They 
who  are  with  and  for  us  are  more  than  they  who  are  against  us. 

And,  first,  let  us  clearly,  constantly  and  gratefully  recognize 
that  the  purpose  of  the  world’s  redemption  has  its  seat  and 
throne  in  the  eternal  love  of  God.  The  prayer  we  lisp  is 
sublime  because  the  living  thought  of  Jehovah  is  in  it.  If 
the  missionary  spirit  were  the  fruit  only  of  the  ripest  thought 
of  man,  or  of  his  most  generous  sympathies,  it  might  be 
doubtful  whether  it  carried  sufficient  momentum  to  overcome 


8 


Counting  the  Cost. 


all  the  resistance  enlisted,  and  on  its  overthrow  to  establish 
the  fair  rule  of  righteousness.  But  against  all  such  doubt  we 
are  fortified  — yea,  lifted  high  above  it  — when  Paul  declares, 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  that  it  is  the  pleasure  of  the 
Father,  having  made  peace  through  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
by  Him  to  reconcile  all  things  to  Himself;  or  when  it  is 
affirmed,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  that  the  mystery,  or 
secret,  of  God’s  eternal  will  is  this  : “That  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  fullness  of  time.  He  might  gather  together  in  one  all 
things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven,  and  which  are  on 
earth.”  Here,  brethren,  is  the  secret  that  rules  the  stars, 
and  before  which  the  ages  must  bow.  This  living  thought  of 
God  is  the  philosophy  of  history ; and  we  have  hope  for  the 
race  because  grace  is  on  the  throne.  The  fulfillment  may 
seem  to  be  very  distant,  and  the  night  may  seem  to  gather 
darkness;  but,  as  in  the  bitter  days  when  the  frost-king  rules, 
and  his  icy  hand  palsies  all  the  rivers  and  strips  all  the  trees, 
beneath  the  surface  and  in  hidden  chambers  flowers,  foliage 
and  fruits  are  safely  sheltered,  and  even  tenderly  nursed,  des- 
tined after  a few  brief  days  to  transfigure  the  earth  anew  into 
a paradise,  so  surely  is  God  at  work,  pushing  His  new  cre- 
ation, giving  embodiment  to  the  eternal  purpose  of  His  grace 
in  Jesus  Christ. 

Let  us  grasp  the  high  meaning  of  the  declaration  that  grace 
reigns.  Physical  science  has  made  us  familiar  with  the  idea 
that  the  reign  of  law  is  universal,  and  that  a solitary  exception 
to  its  rule  would  be  an  unspeakable  calamity.  Older,  deeper, 
and  more  majestic  than  this  conviction  of  physical  order,  is 
the  conviction  of  an  absolute  and  universal  justice,  the  reign 
of  an  impartial  and  stern  righteousness,  incapable  of  evasion 
or  bribery.  This  profound  conviction  dominates  all  literature, 
ancient  and  modern,  and  gives  to  human  life  both  its  tragedy 
and  glory.  For,  as  Bishop  Butler  has  so  well  said,  if  con- 
science had  only  might,  as  she  has  right,  she  would  rule  the 
world,  and  as  it  is,  when  her  right  is  ignored  and  defied,  the 
consequent  misery  and  remorse  are  a terrible  vindication  of 
her  indefeasible  authority. 


Counting  the  Cost. 


9 


But  neither  physical  order  nor  moral  law  exhausts  the  secret 
of  God’s  purpose.  Grace  reigns ; the  purpose  of  redemption, 
not  by  violation  of  natural  law,  nor  by  compromising  and  de- 
preciating righteousness,  but  by  making  both  agencies  in 
securing  a higher  and  more  glorious  result.  The  transfigur- 
ing energy  of  grace  is  the  secret  both  of  natural  and  of  moral 
law.  Therefore  is  it  said  that  even  the  material  creation  waits 
in  earnest  expectation  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of 
God,  and  that  God  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked. 
There  is  something  more  in  God  than  a passion  for  order,  or 
the  quality  of  retributive  justice;  and  there  is  something 
more  than  these  in  the  work  of  His  hands.  Love  is  the  most 
glorious  name  He  bears  — a love  creative  of  order,  and  always 
promoting  righteousness  — but  filling  all  law,  not  merely  with 
punitive,  but  also  with  redemptive  energy.  Grace,  equally 
with  order  and  righteousness,  is  crowned  and  sceptered.  The 
cross  of  redemption,  as  the  theologians  say,  is  older  than  the 
Decalogue,  or  the  misty  void  of  which  was  born  the  beauty 
of  the  Cosmos.  At  the  heart  of  nature,  as  the  secret  of  all 
her  manifold  and  complicated  movements,  and  at  the  heart  of 
human  history,  is  the  living  purpose  of  the  Divine  benevo- 
lence. It  is  no  less  unscriptural  and  mischievous  to  repre- 
sent grace  as  optional,  intermittent,  or  even  limited,  while 
righteousness  is  regarded  as  necessary,  eternal  and  universal, 
than  it  is  so  to  conceive  of  grace  as  to  rob  righteousness  of 
its  eternal  honors.  The  righteousness  of  God  is  always  and 
everywhere  more  than  the  rigid  exactness  of  retributive  jus- 
tice ; and  the  grace  of  God  is  not  a sentimental  goodness 
that  excuses  sin ; nor  is  it  so  mechanical  in  its  administration 
that  the  moral  freedom  of  man  is  resolved  into  a name.  God 
neither  surrenders  His  justice  to  His  grace  nor  His  grace  to 
His  justice.  In  Christ  all  things  are  to  be  profoundly  and 
eternally  reconciled,  but  only  through  the  mediation  of  a right- 
eousness graciously  communicated,  voluntarily  and  vitally 
appropriated.  Universalism,  therefore,  errs  when  it  inter- 
prets this  restoration  as  outward,  mechanical,  and  compul- 
sory, rather  than  ideal  and  ethical.  For  the  lost,  in  Scripture, 


10 


Counting  the  Cost. 


are  represented  as  being  “ without,”  severed  from  the  living, 
fruitful  organism.  The  tree  remains,  unimpaired  in  its  essen- 
tial and  complete  vitality,  though  the  withered  branches  be 
committed  to  the  flames ; nay,  its  vigor,  fruitfulness  and  beauty 
are  greatly  increased  by  the  pruning.  The  dead  branches  are 
not  a part  of  the  vine,  but  an  ugly  and  injurious  incumbrance 
upon  it.  In  this  sense  is  there  to  be  a salvation  of  the  world  ; 
not  of  all  who  once  belonged  to  its  numerical  constituency, 
nor  merely  of  very  many  of  its  individual  members,  but  of 
humanity  as  an  ideally  unbroken  and  indissoluble  unity,  and 
in  its  historical  completeness ; just  as  a nation  may  not  only 
retain  the  integrity  of  its  political  existence,  but  possess  it  in 
richer  and  growing  fullness,  though  thousands  fall  in  a war  of 
resistance  and  thousands  more  remain  permanently  under 
civil  disabilities.  Grace  reigns  through  righteousness,  and 
will  have  its  glorious  way  in  a transfigured  creation  and  a 
redeemed  humanity.  The  earth  is  the  Lord’s  and  the  fullness 
thereof,  and  the  Devil’s  claim  thereto  is  false,  fraudulent,  and 
hollow.  I have  not  discounted  the  difficulties  of  our  task, 
but  multiply  them  a thousandfold,  involve  the  whole  creation 
from  its  very  dawn,  and  in  all  its  spheres,  in  the  antagonism ; 
yet  if  grace  reigned  in  the  creative  thought  and  word,  that 
reign  cannot  be  thwarted  nor  broken.  Jesus  Christ  shall  see 
of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied,  because  that  travail 
of  grace  is  the  oldest  and  the  mightiest  of  all  the  forces  in  the 
universe  of  God. 

But  grace  works  with  fitting  instruments.  The  gospel  we 
are  commanded  to  preach  matches  the  grace  which  it  pro- 
claims, and  which  is  our  inspiration.  We  have  a message 
that,  in  spirit  and  contents,  addresses  itself  to  the  unbiased 
reason  and  the  healthy  conscience.  The  Westminster  Con- 
fession of  Faith  contains  nothing  more  admirable  than  its 
summary  of  the  evidences  establishing  the  Divine  authority 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  which  the  secondary  place  is  given 
to  the  heavenliness  of  the  matter,  the  efficacy  of  the  doctrine, 
the  majesty  of  the  style,  the  consent  of  all  the  parts,  the 
scope  of  the  whole,  while  it  is  declared  that  ” our  full  persua- 


Counting  the  Cost. 


11 


sion  and  assurance  of  the  infallible  truth,  and  divine  authority 
thereof,  is  from  the  inward  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  bearing 
witness  by  and  with  the  word  in  our  hearts.”  The  gospel 
compels  recognition  and  acceptance  in  advance  of  personal 
experience,  as  really  and  inevitably  as  does  the  light  of  heaven 
before  we  have  walked  under  its  guidance.  We  do  not  believe 
in  that  light  because  we  have  tried  it ; rather  do  we  try  it 
because  we  believe  in  it.  Robertson  reports  how  once,  on  a 
journey  up  the  Rhine,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  an  intelli- 
gent and  brilliant  but  skeptical  young  Frenchman,  and  as 
the  conversation  drifted  into  religious  subjects,  the  preacher 
avoided  the  apologetic  tone  and  emphasized  the  contents  of 
revelation,  when  suddenly  his  hearer  exclairhed : “ It  is  a 
beautiful  faith ! ” What  the  world  needs  is  the  gospel,  not 
the  evidences  of  the  gospel.  The  congruity  between  man  and 
the  Bible  is  perfect ; and  there  is  no  better  evidence  of  its 
divinity  than  its  pure  and  perfect  humanity.  It  is  a faithful 
mirror  of  human  life  in  its  bondage,  its  painful  contradictions, 
its  universal  restlessness.  Its  moral  precepts  compel  recog- 
nition, and  the  good  news  it  proclaims  is  adequate  and  grate- 
ful. Carry  the  Bible  where  you  will,  it  makes  its  own  way 
and  “ finds  ” men.  The  fall  has  not  modified  nor  broken 
either  the  moral  government  of  God  or  the  essential  nature 
of  man.  The  deepest  apostasies,  the  foulest  abominations  of 
heathenism,  cannot  destroy  the  moral  nature,  extract  the 
sting  from  an  accusing  conscience,  and  secure  peace  to  the 
wicked.  Even  Felix  trembles  when  Paul  preaches.  Here  is 
the  pou  sto,  the  living  fulcrum,  securing  the  natural  leverage 
for  the  world’s  conversion.  This  makes  it  possible  and  rea- 
sonable. Christianity  needs  only  to  expound  the  moral  law, 
and  proclaim  the  gospel  of  forgiveness  to  compel  a hearing 
and  draw  the  hungry  to  her  feast.  No  criticism  can  discredit 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  third  chapter  of  John’s 
Gospel. 

Experience  has  taught  us  that  the  high  morality  and  intense 
spirituality  of  the  New  Testament  constitute  no  obstacle  to 
the  evangelization  of  the  rudest  races.  It  has  been  main- 


12 


Counting  the  Cost. 


tained  by  some  that  the  progress  of  civilization  is  largely 
dependent  on  colonization,  to  be  achieved  by  the  dominance 
of  one  great  race  pushing  the  weaker  tribes  to  the  wall  and 
gradually  supplanting  them.  To  the  Anglo-Saxon,  we  are 
told,  belongs  the  dominion  of  the  world.  The  Indian  must 
disappear,  and  it  is  an  unscientific  sentimentality  that  pro- 
longs his  stay.  The  Chinese  must  retreat  and  vanish.  The 
races  of  Central  Africa  must  give  way.  Asiatic  and  African 
nationalities  are  effete,  their  demoralization  so  deep-seated  and 
incurable  that  the  only  hope  of  these  great  continents  is  in 
the  gospel  of  emigration.  I confess  that  I tremble  before 
this  appeal  to  pride  of  blood.  This  theory  is  only  a new  form 
of  the  old  dream  of  a world-empire  in  the  hands  of  a single 
fortunate  and  favored  race  ; and  on  that  dream  of  ambition 
God  has  written,  in  history.  His  judgment  of  fire.  Nimrod 
dreamed  of  it,  and  the  dispersion  followed.  Nebuchadnezzar 
dreamed  of  it,  and  he  reaped  a harvest  of  insanity.  Alexan- 
der dreamed  of  it,  and  he  died  in  a debauch.  Caesar  dreamed 
of  it,  and  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  Charlemagne 
dreamed  of  it,  but  his  empire  fell  apart  when  his  strong  hand 
was  withdrawn.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  dreamed  of  it ; Water- 
loo and  St.  Helena  were  the  answer.  Babylonian,  Grecian, 
Roman,  German,  Frenchman,  successively  heard  the  call  to 
universal  dominion,  and  deemed  it- the  call  of  God;  but  the 
vision  melted  away  and  left  the  eager  pursuers  disgraced  and 
humbled.  And  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  no  such  call.  He  will 
be  honored  of  God  only  as  he  seeks  his  power  in  unselfish 
and  universal  service,  provoking  and  helping  others  to  achieve 
for  themselves  what  he  has  secured  for  himself.  It  is  an 
infinitely  nobler  thing,  more  honorable  to  God  and  man  alike, 
to  Christianize  the  world  than  it  would  be  to  Europeanize  or 
Americanize  it. 

And  the  history  of  missions  shows  that  no  race  is  beyond 
redemption.  Prof.  Rawlinson,  in  a recent  article  on  the 
“ Prospective  Civilization  of  Africa,”  quotes  approvingly  from 
a living  French  writer  to  the  effect  that  “ the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  is  capable  of  becoming  the  most  active  principle  in 


Counting  the  Cost. 


13 


the  regeneration  of  the  African  nations.  History  shows  that 
Christianity  possesses  a power  peculiar  to  itself  for  drawing 
uncultivated  races  out  of  savagery  and  enabling  them  to 
mount  rapidly  the  first  stages  of  civilization.”  This  testi- 
mony rises  to  palpable  demonstration  when  you  read  of  what 
the  gospel  has  done  for  the  “ most  debased  branches  of  the 
human  race,”  fetichists  and  cannibals,  in  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  New  Guinea,  the  South  Sea  Islands,  that  standing 
miracle  of  Christian  evangelization,  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
and  “ the  crown  of  the  London  Society,”  Madagascar.  Chris- 
tian missions  have  won  their  most  signal  triumphs  among  the 
tribes  and  races  that  a worldly  wisdom  had  come  to  regard  as 
hopelessly  debased  and  doomed  to  extinction ; and  it  is  fair  to 
measure  the  power  of  any  system  by  what  it  can  do  for  the 
least  hopeful  of  its  subjects. 

Nor  ought  we  to  forget  as  an  encouragement  to  our  confi- 
dence and  devotion,  that  Christian  faith  has  become  estab- 
lished in  the  great  literatures  and  the  beneficent  institutions 
of  a Christian  civilization.  The  gospel  is  not  only  an  agency 
of  personal  renewal ; it  has  become  a living,  historical  force, 
claiming  recognition  in  the  industrial,  mental  and  moral  supe- 
riority, and  in  the  political  dominance,  of  the  nations  that 
have  received  it.  The  material  benefits  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion are  rapidly  commanding  universal  attention  ; while  the 
spirit  of  emulation  is  waking  the  most  drowsy  of  races.  But 
you  cannot  have  the  fruit  apart  from  the  tree ; and  nations 
will  learn  that  stern  lesson  of  history.  Civilizations  are  not 
made  to  order ; they  are  born  and  grow ; they  are  the  index 
of  a nation’s  mental  and  moral  life,  and  only  as  that  life  is 
cleansed  and  enriched  can  a higher  civilization  supplant  a 
lower.  Japan  and  China  may  want  our  factories,  and  schools, 
and  railways,  and  telegraphs,  and  homes,  but  they  cannot 
have  these  and  keep  them  unless  they  appropriate  and  assim- 
ilate the  living  thought  on  which  these  are  fibred.  Christian 
ideas  must  be  regnant  if  Christian  products  are  to  be  en- 
joyed. Every  steam-engine  exported  becomes  the  prophet  of 
a new  dispensation.  Every  bar  of  railroad  iron  fastened 


14 


Counting  the  Cost. 


down  imperils  social  and  national  alienation.  Every  yard  of 
our  fabrics  is  a lesson  in  Christian  civilization.  Now  it  may 
not  be  very  complimentary  for  a man  to  be  converted  through 
his  pocket-book ; it  is  none  the  less  true  that  in  many  cases 
Christianity  has  received  support  on  no  higher  ground  than 
that  it  is  conducive  to  order,  thrift  and  prosperity.  The 
churches  help  the  bankers,  and  therefore  many  a banker  sup- 
ports the  church.  Your  shrewd  and  sensible  politician  is 
never  an  atheist  by  profession,  whatever  he  may  be  in  prac- 
tice, for  he  well  knows  that  religion  is  the  main  support  of  the 
State.  It  may  be  that  nations,  as  the  greatest  of  all  corpora- 
tions, have  no  souls  and  are  supremely  selfish;  but  the  carnal 
ambition  for  material  enrichment  and  advance  will  prove  the 
entering  wedge  for  a nobler  national  life.  When  men  travel 
in  the  same  car  and  share  in  the  advantages  of  trade  they  can- 
not avoid  comparing  their  opinions,  and  in  a free  comparison 
the  best  are  sure  to  win.  The  world  is  becoming  more  and 
more  compact.  Railway  and  telegraph  are  annihilating  space 
and  time.  Seclusion  is  becoming  more  and  more  difficult,  and 
will  soon  become  impossible.  The  world  is  rapidly  becoming 
a huge  crucible,  with  the  fires  at  white  heat.  All  things  must 
submit  to  the  fierce  testing  that  has  already  begun.  There 
is  coming,  there  has  already  begun,  a struggle  for  existence 
between  opposing  civilizations,  and  the  fittest  is  destined  to 
survive.  Once  did  Christianity  measure  swords  with  the  civil- 
izations of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  the  cross  conquered ; once 
more  that  conflict  must  be  renewed  on  a broader  field,  and  the 
second  victory  will  be  the  last. 

But  here  two  questions  confront  us:  What  is  the  fittest.^ 
And  what  assurance  is  there  of  its  survival  ? Can  I deter- 
mine what  is  best  and  highest  only  by  the  issue  ? Can  I decide 
what  is  fitted  to  survive,  only  by  the  fact  that  I see  it  sur- 
vive.^ Then  I can  never  know  the  best  in  advance,  and 
adjust  my  life  to  it,  because  all  history  has  its  ebb  and  flow, 
and  I must  wait  for  the  end  of  the  world  to  show  me  what  is 
best.  In  the  meantime  moral  life  must  be  suspended;  I can 
only  abandon  myself  to  the  drift  and  tendency  of  my  time. 


Counting  the  Cost. 


15 


But  if  the  best  and  highest  be  a living  and  authoritative  reve- 
lation, commanding  the  sanctions  of  the  universal  conscience, 
what  living  provision  is  there  in  human  history  for  its  con- 
quest ? The  best  ought  to  prevail ; but  how  do  I know  that  it 
will  prevail  unless  I have  some  evidence  that  it  has  prevailed 
and  does  prevail  ? In  other  words,  the  final  cause  of  history 
must  also  be  its  first  and  formative  cause.  The  outcome  of 
all  history  must  be  history’s  living  heart,  the  creative  and  con- 
trolling spirit  of  all  the  ages. 

What  evidence  is  there  that  this  central  place  belongs  to 
Christianity.?  You  will  point  me  to  the  ancient  prophets  who, 
as  Isaac  Taylor  says,  are  the  masters  of  modern  thought,  from 
whom  we  have  caught  the  spirit  of  high  hopefulness  and  of 
undaunted  aggressiveness.  But  do  we  simply  occupy  the 
prophetic  ground,  or  have  we  passed  beyond  the  ancient  seers, 
beholding  what  they  did  not  discern,  so  that  prophecy  has 
become  a pledge .?  Even  ancient  prophecy  had  its  visible  his- 
torical ground  and  warrant  in  God’s  dealing  with  Israel,  of 
which  it  was  only  an  interpretation ; and  now  that  the  the- 
ocracy has  vanished,  what  living  assurance  have  we  that  all 
the  hopes  it  created  and  fostered  have  not  also  vanished  .? 
We  make  a peculiar  claim  for  Christianity,  a claim  whose 
familiarity  blinds  us  to  its  audacity.  We  decline  for  it  an 
honorable,  even  the  highest,  place  in  the  pantheon  of  the 
world’s  religions ; we  will  not  hear  of  its  throne  and  scepter 
being  shared  with  Confucius,  or  Sakya  Mouni,  or  Mahomet. 
We  insist  on  its  original,  exclusive,  universal,  eternal  right  to 
sovereignty.  Is  there  any  historical  warrant  for  so  sweeping 
a claim,  or  must  we  be  content  to  base  it  on  the  peculiar  ex- 
cellence of  the  Gospel,  or  on  the  prophecies  of  the  Bible,  or 
on  the  command  of  Jesus  Christ  ? What  is  the  Christian 
answer.?  What  is  the  answer  of  the  New  Testament.? 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  has  changed  prophecy  into 
history.  That  is  the  living  argument  and  pledge  of  the 
world’s  ultimate  and  universal  regeneration.  Initially  and 
constructively,  that  resurrection  is  the  world’s  redemption. 
Explain  it  as  you  will,  the  person  of  Christ  is  the  center  of 


16 


Counting  the  Cost. 


the  world’s  life.  It  marks  the  death  of  the  old,  and  the  birth 
of  the  new.  Call  the  resurrection  a fiction,  if  you  will,  the 
dream  of  Mary  Magdalene,  that  resurrection  has  proved  the 
world’s  inspiration.  The  early  preachers  proclaimed  Christ  as 
the  Risen  One,  and  on  that  living  conviction  they  founded 
the  Church.  Primitive  Christianity  planted  her  standards  by 
the  open  and  empty  grave  of  the  Crucified,  and  thence 
marched  to  the  conquest  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  most 
remarkable  movement  of  the  Middle  Ages,  enlisting  kings 
and  beggars,  setting  the  world  on  fire,  breaking  up  the  stupor 
of  centuries,  preparing  the  way  for  commerce,  the  revival  of 
letters  and  the  great  Reformation,  from  which  modern  history 
dates,  was  due  to  an  intense  and  widespread  enthusiasm  to 
recover  the  empty  grave  where  our  Lord  was  buried.  Once 
more,  in  our  day,  that  sepulcher  has  become  the  altar  of  the 
Church.  We  are  not  ambitious  to  supplant  the  Crescent  by 
the  Cross,  as  the  sym.bol  of  an  external  and  empty  triumph. 
For  we  need  to  remember  that  the  sanctity  of  that  unknown 
tomb  is  bound  up  with  that  of  the  whole  earth,  with  the  re- 
demption of  all  the  nations  for  whom  that  tomb  was  hewn  and 
rent.  Redeem  the  world  and  the  great  crusade  is  accom- 
plished. And  on  the  morning  when  that  grave  was  rent,  if 
Christ  be  indeed  Christianity,  not  only  the  founder,  but  the 
living  energy  of  our  holy  religion,  Christianity  became  the 
all-conquering  force  of  history.  When  our  Lord  had  abol- 
ished death  in  His  own  person,  redemption  was  no  longer  a 
problem  or  a prophecy,  but  a fact.  The  first  Easter  of  human 
history  was  the  dawn  of  the  millennium.  The  mustard  seed 
has  been  planted,  and  is  growing.  The  leaven  lies  at  the 
heart  of  the  meal.  The  year  of  jubilee  has  come.  Christ 
is  risen ! That  is  the  great  rallying  cry  of  the  Church  of 
God.  Let  us  proclaim  it  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ; for  He 
who  conquered  death  has  a divine  right  to  a world  smitten  by 
its  curse. 

It  seems  only  yesterday,  though  three  weeks  have  passed, 
that  we  yielded  to  the  earth  its  claim  to  the  mortal  frame  of 
our  late  lamented  President.  Sorely  did  we  feel  ourselves  to 


Counting  the  Cost. 


17 


be  smitten,  and  the  burden  lias  not  yet  lifted  from  our  sorrow- 
ing hearts.  No  sick-bed  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  been 
so  sacred  a temple,  toward  which  the  people  turned  their  faces 
as  they  prayed,  as  that  in  the  cottage  by  the  sea ; and  no 
death  of  mortal  man  has  been  such  a rebuke  to  sectionalism 
and  partisanship,  and  so  eloquent  a charge  to  a nobler  and 
purer  patriotism,  as  the  death  of  him  whom  the  sea  sang  to 
sleep.  Let  us  hope  that  this  baptism  of  suffering  and  tears, 
by  whose  holy  chrism  every  brow  has  been  touched,  has 
joined  in  living  and  undying  fellowship  those  whom  the  sword 
had  severed.  Be  that  grave  by  the  stormy  inland  sea  the 
Mecca  of  a new  devotion,  to  which  all  the  great  land  shall 
turn  to  swear  fresh  allegiance  to  our  common  country.  But 
Jesus  Christ,  my  brethren,  died  for  the  world,  and  that  death 
is  honored  only  as  by  its  memory  and  might  the  world  is 
brought  to  Him.  And  we  have  yet  a more  wondrous  talisman 
of  power.  The  grave  where  His  body  was  laid  has  been 
empty  ever  since  the  third  day  of  its  burial ! The  earth 
closed  over  him,  as  it  did  over  our  late  chief.  But  soon  its 
mighty  heart,  on  which  the  millions  have  been  laid  to  sleep, 
felt  a strange,  joyful  stirring.  It  was  the  pulse  of  life  beating 
against  the  stony  ribs  of  death.  The  chains  flew  apart,  the 
prison  walls  trembled,  the  heavy  doors  were  burst  through,  as 
the  Lord  of  life  and  glory  came  forth.  My  brethren,  what  a 
ruin  was  that ! What  a toppling  of  the  principalities  and 
powers  of  darkness ! And  the  ruin  has  never  been  repaired, 
nor  will  it  ever  be.  No  gloom  has  the  grave  henceforth  for 
the  believer,  since  the  glory  of  that  resurrection  has  trans- 
figured it.  It  is  the  open  gate  to  heaven.  And  the  earth 
that  bears  upon  her  heart  the  seal  of  such  a triumph  can  be 
destined  for  nothing  less  than  a conspicuous  share  in  her 
Lord’s  eternal  glory.  The  risen  Christ  is  the  living  prophecy 
and  pledge  of  a world’s  redemption.  By  that  sign  we  conquer  ! 

Shall  we  stop  here  Not  if  our  inventory  is  to  be  com- 
plete. In  the  Book  of  Acts,  which  has  been  called  “ the 
gospel  of  the  Holy  Ghost,”  the  day  of  Pentecost  is  closely 
associated  with  the  day  of  Resurrection.  The  isolated  fact 


18 


Counting  the  Cost. 


hereby  proved  its  universal  energy.  The  new  dispensation  is 
preeminently  that  of  the  Spirit,  not  as  if  He  had  not  wrought 
before,  but  that  by  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of  Christ 
the  way  was  fully  prepared  for  His  varied  and  peculiar  minis- 
try. The  new  dispensation  may  be  said  to  have  its  base  in  a 
conquering  Christ,  and  its  historical  inauguration  and  living 
inspiration  in  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Pente- 
costal miracle,  it  has  been  well  said,  “ was  not  merely  tran- 
sient, but  is  continuously  renewed.  It  is  not  a rushing  sound 
and  gleaming  light,  seen  perhaps  only  for  a moment,  but  it  is 
a living  energy  and  unceasing  inspiration.  It  is  not  a visible 
symbol  to  a gathered  handful  of  human  souls,  but  a vivifying 
wind,  which  shall  henceforth  breathe  in  all  ages  of  the  world’s 
history ; a tide  of  light  which  is  rolling,  and  shall  roll,  from 
shore  to  shore,  until  the  earth  is  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.” 

The  Church,  then,  has  an  indwelling,  invisible,  invincible, 
infallible  leadership.  A mightier  spirit  than  man’s  moves  in 
the  prayers  of  saints  and  the  devotion  of  good  men.  The 
deepest  heart  within  us  does  not  always  pray  as  do  the  lips, 
and  our  wants  are  often  the  reverse  of  our  wishes  ; but  Christ 
passes  beyond  the  word,  and  makes  articulate  in  His  interces- 
sion the  real  need,  whose  supply  is  never  wanting.  And  as 
He  breathes  His  infallible  interpretation  through  our  faulty 
and  halting  speech,  so  He  makes  His  wisdom  to  brood  over 
all  our  thought  and  care,  as  we  take  counsel  about  His  king- 
dom. He  guides  the  church  by  His  Spirit  as  well  as  by  His 
Providence,  pushing  back  the  bolts  and  opening  the  doors, 
providing  opportunities  and  preparing  us  meanwhile,  anoint- 
ing the  prophets  and  sealing  their  labors.  Our  thought 
grows  painfully  intense,  our  prayers  gather  holy  violence,  our 
hands  are  strained  to  the  utmost;  and  it  always  will  be  so,  for 
it  is  our  only  salvation  to  be  thus  occupied  and  burdened ; yet 
into  our  thought  enters  a wisdom,  into  our  hands  steals  a 
power,  that  is  not  of  earth.  It  is  the  wisdom,  the  travail  of 
soul,  the  might  of  our  great  and  living  Head. 

All  build  wiser  than  they  know.  Not  Paul,  nor  Luther,  nor 


Counting  the  Cost. 


19 


Knox,  nor  Edwards,  leads  the  Church ; but  the  Holy  Ghost 
elects  and  ordains,  appoints  and  establishes.  Did  Stephen 
dream  how  his  words  and  martyrdom  would  burn  their  way 
into  the  soul  of  one  young  man,  who  should  fall  only  after 
thirty  years  of  service,  and  when  Christianity  had  been  com- 
pletely emancipated  from  bondage  to  Jewish  legalism } Do 
you  suppose  Paul  imagined  what  he  was  doing  when  he 
preached  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome,  and  wrote  his  burning 
epistles } Did  Luther  suspect  what  reverberations  his  ham- 
mer would  cause,  how  memorablg^  would  be  that  walk  of  less 
than  a mile  from  his  home  to  the  grim  castle-church  ? Did 
Wesley  know  what  a fire  he  was  kindling  when  he  prayed  at 
Lincoln  College,  Oxford.^  Did  Robert  Raikes  dream  what 
forces  he  was  setting  in  motion  when  he  began  his  humble 
work  in  Gloucester.^  Did  Samuel  Mills,  Gordon  Hall  and 
James  Richards  anticipate  that  their  retired  prayer-meeting 
would  grow  to  the  dimensions  of  the  American  Board,  and 
prove  the  crowning  glory  of  Williams  College  ? And  who 
will  dare  to  prophesy  what  our  children’s  children  shall  see  ? 
Who  guides  the  church  ? The  risen  Christ,  by  the  Holy  Ghost ^ 
There  is  power  in  heaven  and  there  is  power  on  earth. 
Above,  Christ  is  represented  as  interceding  and  ruling ; on 
earth,  responsive  to  that  intercession  and  kingship,  the  Spirit 
moves  all  creation  with  unconscious  travail,  and  the  hearts  of 
saints  with  unutterable  prayers.  With  such  a presence  filling 
the  spaces  and  shaping  the  centuries,  what  need  have  we  to 
fear  1 Can  there  be  any  other  issue  than  the  glorious  and 
eternal  triumph  of  Christ’s  kingdom  over  the  hatred  of  men 
and  the  wrath  of  devils } Wh^t  foe  can  resist  an  army 
recruited  at  the  call  of  God’s  grace,  equipped  with  a message 
that  is  a double-edged  sword,  fitted  both  for  wounding  and 
healing,  guarding  the  trophies  won  from  a hundred  hard- 
fought  battle-fields,  under  the  command  of  a captain  by  whose 
personal  assault  the  enemy’s  center  has  been  broken,  his  cita- 
del captured  and  his  forces  shattered,  led  by  a secret  wisdom 
incapable  alike  of  surprise  and  fear.?  Let  Mount  Zion  re- 
joice, let  the  daughters  of  Judah  be  glad,  because  of  Jehovah's 


20 


Counting  the  Cost. 


judgments.  Walk  about  Zion,  and  go  round  about  her:  tell 
the  towers  thereof.  Mark  ye  well  her  bulwarks,  consider  her 
palaces,  for  in  them  God  is  known  for  a refuge.  Lo!  the  kings 
were  assembled;  they  passed  by  together;  they  saw,  and  so  they 
marveled;  they  were  troubled,  and  hasted  away. 

Bear  with  me  while  I endeavor,  briefly,  to  indicate  the 
practical  conclusions  of  our  study. 

It  summons  us  to  great  boldness.  We  need  to  lay  aside 
the  apologetic  tone.  A king  once  crowned  does  not  stop  to 
submit  the  parchments  of  his  legitimacy  to  every  challenge. 
Possession  counts  for  something.  Remember  what  Chris- 
tianity has  done,  the  disadvantages  under  which  she  began 
her  mission,  the  abuses  she  has  conquered,  and  the  dominance 
she  has  attained  by  the  simple  force  of  the  truth  committed 
to  her  custody,  and  let  our  advocacy  have  a triumphant  ring. 
Let  us  sing  as  we  march. 

We  need  great  wisdom.  A large  work  must  be  done,  in 
which  personal  discipleship  is  completed  in  social,  literary  and 
political  regeneration,  so  that  Christianity  shall  not  remain  a 
foreign  importation,  but  shall  become  native  to  every  race  by 
whom  it  is  received,  creating  new  institutions  and  traditions. 
We  need  a different  policy  of  evangelization  "from  that  pur- 
sued by  Augustine  in  England,  or  Boniface  in  Germany,  or 
St.  Francis  Xavier  in  India.  Pertnanence  of  impression  is 
much  more  important  than  rapidity  of  increase ; and  of  equal 
importance  is  the  earnest  endeavor  to  secure,  at  the  earliest 
possible  day,  a competent  native  leadership;  and  we  must  be 
on  our  guard,  as  Prof.  Christlieb  says,  not  to  Europeanize  the 
native  helpers  and  disciples,  lest  we  isolate  them  from  the 
great  masses  of  their  countrymen.  We  need,  therefore,  to 
build  broadly,  with  an  eye  to  the  distant  future,  without  being 
too  intent  upon  immediate  results.  For  Christianity  is  not 
only  a religion  of  personal  salvation,  and  of  salvation  in  the 
narrow  sense  of  getting  men  into  heaven : it  makes  a heaven 
below,  as  well  as  conducting  to  one  above  and  beyond ; it 
means  to  transfigure  into  celestial  beauty  every  form  of  earthly 
life  — its  homes,  its  traffic,  its  industries,  its  restless,  adven- 


Counting  the  Cost. 


21 


turous  thought,  its  art,  its  science,  its  social  movements,  its 
political  councils,  until  the  great  globe  shall  be  radiant  with  a 
divine  glory. 

Let  us  remember,  too,  that  in  a task  of  such  exceptional 
magnitude,  there  is  room  and  need  for  all  existing  exigencies. 
We  are  all  brethren.  David  Livingstone  cherished  the  true 
spirit  when  he  said : “ We  are  all  engaged  in  very  much  the 
same  work ; geographers,  astronomers,  and  mechanicians,  la- 
boring to  make  men  better  acquainted  with  each  other,  pro- 
moters of  Niger  expeditions,  soldiers  fighting  for  right  against 
oppression,  and  sailors  rescuing  captives  in  deadly  chains,  as 
well  as  missionaries,  are  all  aiding  in  hastening  on  a glorious 
consummation  of  all  God’s  dealings  with  our  race.”  Amen 
and  amen ! The  very  stars  in  their  wide  courses  fight  for  the 
Israel  of  God.  The  sun  in  the  heavens  hears  and  heeds  the 
summons  of  the  second  and  greater  Joshua.  He  gives  to 
every  man  his  place,  combining  the  most'  diverse  and  widely 
scattered  labors  into  the  living  unity  of  His  plan  The  wid- 
ow’s mite  is  not  despised.  The  precious  ointment  is  not 
wasted  when  love  for  Him  breaks  the  brittle  vase.  The  labor 
of  Dorcas  is  not  forgotten  nor  unregistered.  Every  true 
man,  every  generous  deed,  all  honest  work,  all  patient  endur- 
ance, even  the  cup  of  water  given  in  a disciple’s  name,  every 
Sunday-school  scholar’s  penny,  every  invalid’s  prayer  has  its 
honored  place  in  that  ministry  of  grace,  whose  fruit  shall  be 
the  redeemed  earth.  The  millions  are  summoned  to  make 
President  Garfield’s  grave  monumental,  each  dollar  subscrip- 
tion entitling  the  donor  to  formal  and  permanent  record  of  his 
name  on  the  long  roll  of  honor.  That  parchment  will  grovv 
old  and  sere,  its  names  passing  into  oblivion.  But  he  who 
contributes  his  treasure  and  his  toil  to  the  erection  of  God’s 
monumental  temple,  under  whose  ample  dome  the  millions 
are  to  worship,  will  find  his  name  carved  in  undying  lines  on 
its  eternal  pillars. 

The  memories  and  inspirations  of  our  gathering,  fathers 
and  brethren,  forbid  the  recognition  of  all  hard  lines  of  dis- 
tinction between  domestic  and  foreign  missionary  operations. 


22 


Counting  the  Cost. 


You  who  toil  among  the  busy  growing  millions  in  this  great 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  who  behold  an  empire  rapidly 
growing  up  beyond  the  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  for 
whom  the  savagery  of  the  Indian,  the  heathenism  of  China, 
and  the  rotten  social  life  of  Utah,  are  the  most  terrible  of 
practical  problems,  are  appalled  at  the  magnitude  and  keenly 
sensitive  to  the  immediate  requirements  of  the  home  work. 
“ We  must  secure  and  hold  these  valleys  and  coasts,”  you  tell 
us,  “ for  Christ  and  for  His  gospel,  if  we  would  conquer  the 
continent  beyond  the  Pacific.  There  is  danger  that  a vigilant 
enemy  may  outflank  us,  and  cut  off  our  supplies  while  we  are 
invading  the  hostile  territory.”  Your  words  of  warning  do 
not  fall  on  dull  and  heavy  ears.  We  of  the  East  share  your 
conviction  and  solicitude ; we,  too,  declare,  through  one  of 
our  most  honored  representatives,  that  twenty  years  here, 
west  of  the  Father  of  Waters,  may  be  worth  five  hundred 
years  in  China  and  Japan.  Asia  can  be  evangelized  only  as 
North  America  is  redeemed,  and  converted  into  a base  of 
operations  against  the  powers  of  heathenism.  But  a great 
and  ably  officered  army  always  moves  in  concert,  however 
numerous  and  scattered  the  departments.  Its  ultimate  object 
and  ruling  spirit  are  always  one  and  the  same.  And  hence, 
whether  we  plant  churches  and  schools  at  home,  or  push  the 
work  abroad,  we  are  doing  either  aright  only  when  it  is  done 
from  supreme  love  for  Christ,  and  with  a view  to  the  conquest 
of  the  world.  The  separation  of  the  ventricles  of  the  heart, 
or  the  severance  of  the  arteries  from  the  veins,  would  be 
vastly  more  innocent  than  any  conscious  breach  between  the 
domestic  and  the  foreign  missionary  work  in  the  living  sympa- 
thies of  the  Church  of  God.  Not  Asia  for  Christ,  or  America 
for  the  Gospel,  but  the  whole  round  earth,  with  all  her  tribes 
and  races,  for  the  Lord,  is  the  open  secret  of  our  commission ; 
and  for  its  execution  home  and  foreign  missionary  societies 
are  only  the  two  arms  of  a single  service,  neither  of  which 
will  we  suffer  to  be  amputated,  paralyzed,  or  unemployed. 
And  I am  sure  that  whatever  ancient  and  chronic  rivalries 
may  be  supposed  to  exist  between  Chicago  and  St.  Louis, 


Counting  the  Cost, 


23 


there  is  only  the  heartiest  cooperation  between  those  who, 
last  week,  consulted  on  the  home  work  in  the  great  city  of  the 
lakes,  and  ourselves  who,  from  every  part  of  the  land,  have 
come  to  the  metropolis  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  to  pray  and 
to  plan  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  earth.  Here  must  we 
create  and  stock  the  arsenals  and  commissary  departments,  in 
the  form  of  living  vigorous  churches,  and  Christian  schools, 
whose  task  it  shall  be  to  supply  the  needed  recruits  and  pro- 
vide the  army  of  universal  conquest  with  bread  and  arms. 

Nor  must  we  suffer  ourselves  to  become  impatient.  The 
Lord  has  the  ages  for  His  own.  Let  us  not  forget  that 
eighteen  centuries  have  been  required  to  make  us  what  we 
are ; that  we  have  entered  into  the  inheritance  of  sixty  Chris- 
tian generations ; and  that,  by  comparison,  the  achievements 
of  missionary  endeavor  for  the  last  one  hundred  years  consti- 
tute a chapter  of  peculiar  and  unparalleled  success.  The 
record  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  more  marvelous  than  that 
of  the  first.  With  seventy  societies  distributed  through  the 
field  ; with  a force  of  twenty-four  hundred  ordained  European 
and  American  missionaries,  and  nearly  twenty-five  thousand 
native  preachers,  helpers  and  catechists ; with  a native  mem- 
bership of  over  a million  in  the  mission  churches,  represent- 
ing a population  five  times  as  large  ; with  an  expenditure  of 
nearly  seven  million  dollars  annually ; with  twelve  thousand 
schools  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pupils ; with  the 
Scriptures  translated  into  nearly  three  hundred  languages  and 
dialects,  sixty  of  which  had  never  before  been  reduced  to 
writing,  and  reaching  a circulation  of  a hundred  and  fifty 
million  copies ; with  native  and  popular  movements  in  Japan, 
Burmah  and  India,  portentous  from  their  intensity  and  magni- 
tude, attended  with  extravagances  peculiarly  Oriental,  but  in- 
dicative of  the  approach  of  national  awakenings ; and  all  the 
result  of  little  more  than  three  quarters  of  a century  of  work, 
have  we  any  right  to  complain  } Nay,  my  brethren ; we  have 
reason  to  be  gratefully  astonished  that  so  large  a blessing  has 
rested  on  labors  so  recently  undertaken,  so  scattered  and  in- 
adequate. 


24 


Counting  the  Cost. 


Above  all,  let  us  have  faith ; not  simply  in  the  sense  of 
confidence  that  our  cause  is  worthy  and  approved  of  God,  but 
in  the  sense  of  assurance  that  our  plans  and  methods  are  of 
Divine  suggestion  and  appointment,  and  of  firm  reliance  on 
Jesus  Christ,  as  leading  us  to  victory.  Faith  has  grasp  as 
well  as  rest.  It  shouts  even  when  it  suffers.  It  is  jubilant 
while  it  is  anxious.  It  knows,  and  therefore  dares.  It  is  not 
enough  indolently  to  believe  that  God  will  make  good  His 
word,  for  it  has  pleased  Him  to  make  that  word  good  only  as  it 
becomes  the  life  of  His  servants  ; and  if  God’s  word  can  be 
made  good  only  in  and  through  us,  we  must  have  a clear  ap- 
prehension of  His  chosen  agencies,  and  adjust  ourselves  to 
them.  And  the  supreme  agency  that  he  has  ordained  is  the 
personal  ministry  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  whom  alone  the 
prophets  can  be  anointed  and  the  message  of  the  gospel  be 
made  effective.  Let  us  honor  Him  ! May  His  baptism  fall 
on  us ! 

We  have  counted  the  cost,  and  have  found  no  cause  for 
despondency  or  fear.  When  the  pious  Spener,  to  whom  Ger- 
man Protestantism  owes  its  first  impulse  to  missionary  activ- 
ity, lay  on  his  death-bed,  in  1705,  he  ordered  that  his  body 
should  be  shrouded  in  garments  of  white,  placed  in  a white 
coffin,  and  wrapped  in  a white  pall,  because  he  would  not 
take  so  much  as  a thread  of  black  with  him  into  the  grave, 
having  mourned  too  long,  as  he  confessed,  “not  only  out- 
wardly, but  inwardly  in  his  heart.”  As  Spener  was  carried  to 
his  burial,  so  let  us  go  forth  to  battle,  robed  and  crowned  for 
victory  ! 


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